CBS Lawyers Threaten ABC Over New Big Brotheresqe Show ‘Glass House’

Update: CBS has followed through on their bluff. Reports have surfaced of CBS taking it one step further with their threat on ABC’s Glass House and suing the network for their alleged Big Brother rip-off. CBS reportedly wants a judge to put an end to production on the ABC summer reality TV show, after ABC refused to back down to CBS’s cease and desist letter found below. Noted in the suit filed earlier today, “If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” the suit begins, “then CBS should take pride in ABC’s latest reality TV project. Glass House, which remarkably employs at least 19 former producers and staff from CBS’ hit reality TV series Big Brother, is a carbon copy of Big Brother and an obvious attempt by Defendants to capitalize on its unique success. CBS therefore brings this action to halt and recover its damages from Defendants’ ongoing infringement of its rights in Big Brother.” It went on to say that Glass House “replicates every key aspect of Big Brother, including, among other things, its plot, themes, mood, setting, pace, characters, sequence of events, and other concrete elements.”

According to the Hollywood Reporter, CBS lawyers are threatening ABC over a recently announced reality show called Life in a Glass House, which CBS is alleging is a rip off of their long time running Reality Show Big Brother, currently going into it’s 14th season this summer.

CBS Executives sent a cease-and-desist letter today to ABC executives Anne Sweeney and Alan Braverman. According to CBS lawyer Scott Edelman of the Gibson Dunn firm, Glass House is “strikingly” similar to Big Brother. “In the strongest possible terms, we must admonish ABC and anyone involved in the development or production of Glass House that they will be acting at their own peril if they continue to proceed in this manner,” Edelman writes, “and that CBS has instructed us to pursue all available remedies if this course of conduct continues.”

According to THR, “CBS also claims that the new ABC series is being produced by Big Brother veterans who might reveal private information about the inner workings of the show. Specifically, ABC alternative development executive Corie Henson is a Big Brother alum, and both Kenny Rosen and Mike O’Sullivan worked on the show. Those individuals also received similar cease and desist letters.”

“Even worse, CBS is informed that Glass House is being produced by a team of at least 18 former members of CBS’ Big Brother production staff — all of whom were privy to trade secrets and other confidential, proprietary information and signed broad and binding non-disclosure agreements in connection with Big Brother,” the letter reads.

The Hollywood Reporter has contacted ABC for comment but has not yet heard back. We will update you if they get a response.

What do you think? Too much like Big Brother? Will CBS win this one? Leave us a comment below!

Original founder of the Yak back in the stone age of 2008. When she is not writing and enjoying her online world, Kasey can be found dancing at the beach, climbing Mount Everest, and resting in the shade under the old oak tree... Well, maybe just resting. To read more about Kasey, visit the Yak Staff Page.

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